Thin metal films can be used in various applications such as electronic semiconductor devices, optical coatings, and printing technologies. As such, once deposited, thin metal films can be subjected to harsh environments. Such thin films may be subjected to high heat, corrosive chemicals, etc.
For example, in a typical inkjet printing system, an inkjet printhead ejects fluid (e.g., ink) droplets through a plurality of nozzles toward a print medium, such as a sheet of paper, to print an image onto the print medium. The nozzles are generally arranged in one or more arrays, such that properly sequenced ejection of ink from the nozzles causes characters or other images to be printed on the print medium as the printhead and the print medium are moved relative to each other.
Unfortunately, because the ejection process is repeated thousands of times per second during printing, collapsing vapor bubbles also have the adverse effect of damaging the heating element. The repeated collapsing of the vapor bubbles leads to cavitation damage to the surface material that coats the heating element. Each of the millions of collapse events ablate the coating material. Once ink penetrates the surface material coating the heating element and contacts the hot, high voltage resistor surface, rapid corrosion and physical destruction of the resistor soon follows, rendering the heating element ineffective. There are also other examples of systems, outside of the inkjet arts, where structures may undergo contact with harsh environments. As such, research and development continues in the area of thin metal films used in various applications that can provide improved performance.
Reference will now be made to the exemplary embodiments illustrated, and specific language will be used herein to describe the same. It will nevertheless be understood that no limitation of the scope of the disclosure is thereby intended.